Monday, December 1, 2014

My Life Story of Drawing

Please refer to my previous post, My Life Story of Hobbies and Interests. It shows my majority of hobbies including drawing. Meanwhile, this post will go more details regarding my drawing hobby.

I am a really fortunate person, succeeded my father's drawing skill. If I have to explain the reason for my drawing skill, my father is the only reason I can give. My parents realized my such innate talent quite fast, but neither of them wanted me to pursue my future to the field of art. I did not want that anyway. Although I was young, I knew earning money was important to live in society. Therefore, I decided to become a designer or architect if I must step into the field of art.

Until my elementary school, I enjoyed drawing architectural buildings and military vehicles. Western style houses, apartments, and others were easy to draw but also had variety of changes. This type of drawing enlarged my creativity. Because it was a drawing, I did not have to follow any rules. Drawing military vehicles worked exact same way. I did not have to draw a same already existing vehicles. I simply created ones, combining a lot of parts I remember from other drawings. Mixing all the pictures of vehicles on a paper was a rapture. I dreamed about driving such tanks; I dreamed about living in such houses.

My father and mother acknowledged that my skill needed to improve. Especially, my father wanted me to. I think he wanted to help his son to achieve something that he could not when he was young. When he was young, his dream was to become an artist; even he was accepted to the best art school in South Korea; however, he could not enroll because of finance problem. Often, he looked at my drawings and corrected a few parts. I tried to follow his lead, but it was hard. Especially, he accused me for using a ruler when I draw. Drawing a straight lines was the most difficult part for me, and I had used a ruler for drawing for nearly six years. My father knew that I was not going to be a professional artist but thought knowing how to draw in right way was important. This is why he sent me to the drawing academy.

Drawing academy. It was a place where everyone would come and learn how to draw. Well, teachers at the academy really did not teach anything. They just walked around and fixed or advised students whenever they felt like or when students need them. Before I entered the academy, I knew that they are not going to teach me anything about military vehicles nor buildings. So I had to decide what kind of drawings I was going to draw. I came up with drawing a human because, I thought it could be useful than any other topics. However, drawing body was not my interest so I did a head. Yes I wanted to draw only a head of human. I learned some skills and finally could keep my hands off from ruler. Drawing a human figure was somewhat painful and demanding, but I was glad to have such professional teachings.

Although this 'pleasure' ended shortly after three months. Enrolling high school was a major issue for Korean students at that time (and still now). That is because high school is not mandatory in South Korea. To enroll high school, I had to take a test, and studying to prepare for it consumed quite a lot of time. Obviously, I had to quit the drawing academy to spare myself some more time. Once that happened, drawing came to the end.

Even today, I try to draw sometimes. I continuously remind myself that I need to draw. However, it really does not happen. I am not sure if that is because of laziness or fear of drawing. Drawing seems not happening anymore these days. It just does not fascinate me anymore like it used to. It would be great if I keep my drawing skills and improve them. But, I feel there is something more important I need to take care of. Something that is more practical and beneficial to my future career.

But still, I miss the time when I put my heart and soul into drawing.
I wish I can go back to my young age and draw things again.